Paid Extra Utility Not in Lease Agreement

[isapisa]

My question involves landlord-tenant law in the State of: California

My fiance and myself are renting a room. We signed separate lease agreements. My rent was $500 plus 50% of the utilities.
His rent was $200 and said "rent does not include utilities." There was nothing other that mentioned about utilities in his lease.

A month after we signed our leases our landlord came to us wanting more money(more than 50%) for utilities because the utility had gone up. They were running the air conditioner like crazy the previous month which by coincidence was the same month my fiance moved in.

We ended up paying the extra money because they pretty much guilted us into paying it. He said they he couldn't afford the high utility bill and blamed us for using the washer and dryer and dishwasher too much.

My question is, could we get our money back for the extra utility bill?

[Mr. Knowitall]

You signed separate leases to rent the same room? The leases are entirely separate - they don't reference each other or that the room is shared? Or what?

You have told us that your lease makes you responsible for 50% of the utilities. Your boyfriend's lease doesn't include utilities, which would appear to make it reasonable for the landlord to charge him up to the other 50%.